Over Regulation, the Economy Killer

In 2015, the U.S. government employed more than 277,000 regulators. To put that number in perspective, it’s 50,000 more workers than General Motors Co. employs throughout the entire world.

We’ve all heard of the regulatory agencies that constitute the “fourth branch” of government. It has cost our economy over $100 billion during the Obama administration.

But it wasn’t always like this. We haven’t always lived in a world where unelected bureaucrats could fine a man $55,000 for taking photos of his friend’s art project.

Thankfully, Susan Dudley from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Melinda Warren from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, havetracked the growth of federal regulatory agencies, allowing us to see how we got into the predicament we’re in now.

Here’s the fun part; take a look at the Constitution (unlike the Federal Register, it’s a pretty quick read) and find any authorization in there for a Department of Education, or Commerce, or Energy, or any one of a host of other Imperial agencies.